Anna Kolarzyk, PhD

Anna (Ania) Kolarzyk received her bachelor's and master’s degrees in Biotechnology, with a major in Molecular Biology, from the University of Warsaw. During her master’s studies, she was awarded a fellowship to conduct research on bacterial genetics at the University of Göttingen in Germany in 2015. She later combined her passion for science and travel through a Polish-U.S. Fulbright Fellowship, which brought her to the University of Chicago, where she studied the structure and function of ion channels.

Ania completed her Ph.D. in the laboratory of Esak Lee at Cornell University in 2025, where she investigated the contributions of lymphatic and blood vessels to immune evasion and metastasis in pancreatic cancer. As a postdoctoral associate in the Fowell Lab, Ania continues to explore the role of lymphatic vessels in immune cell trafficking, aiming to better understand how lymphatic-mediated transport can be tuned to enhance cancer immunotherapy. Her primary research focus is on elucidating how lymphatic vessels regulate immune cell trafficking in the context of tumor and VEGF-targeted therapies.

In her free time, Ania enjoys traveling to warm, beachside destinations—her favorite holiday spot in the U.S. is Puerto Rico. She also loves spending time with friends over drinks, gardening in her backyard, going antiquing, and barbecuing.